Horse around during Tryon's annual Holiday Barn Tour

FENCE, the Foothills Equestrian Nature Center, is hosting a Holiday Barn Tour from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.It has been a tradition on the Saturday after Thanksgiving for 24 years.Situated in Tryon, FENCE covers 380 acres. It's a nonprofit organization that focuses on educating and preserving the surrounding area, which Development Coordinator Theron Farmer proudly calls “horse country.”The event aims to represent the horses and barns in the Carolina foothills. The day starts off with horse exhibitions under a covered ring. This includes barrel racing, open jumping, dressage, driving horses, trained performance mules and fox hunting with Green Creek Hounds.Dressage, as Farmer explains, is a demonstration of a horse's athletic ability and training through a series of tests and movements.The Green Creek Hounds, meanwhile, were founded in 1988 by Tryon resident Margaret Secor in an attempt to get back to the traditional English roots of fox hunting in rural areas. The event will be catered by Foothills Mountain Bar-B-Que.The highlight of the day is the barn tours, which start at noon and last until 3 p.m.First there's the Derbyshire barn, a product of a new and growing English-inspired equestrian community in Tryon, with Christmas decorations, refreshments and holiday music.Next there's Sara Lyter's HulinnaDalur Farm. HulinnaDalur is Icelandic for “hidden valley.” Lyter's 10-stall barn is home to her Icelandic horses.Finally, there's Wendell and MaryAnna Haymon's Marydell breeding farm, which features eight pastures and a 16-stall barn. MaryAnna HAYMON will be on hand to explain the lineage of the foals, who have been bred for several years with German based horses.

The annual tour attracts more than 300 horse enthusiasts. According to Farmer, “it's the start of the holiday season for the area!”Admission is $15 and includes both the exhibitions and the self-guided barn tours. They can be purchased at FENCE the day of the event or in advance at The Farm House, Little Mountain Feed Supply and The Hay Rack on Highway 9 and in Landrum, S.C., on Highway 14.Visit www.FENCE.org for directions or call 828-859-9021. FENCE is at 3381 Hunting Country Road in Tryon.